Over its nine year history, TNA Wrestling has had a huge difficulty when it comes creating their own stars. The problem is not the hiring of ex WWE/WCW/ECW stars (the vast majority of them were good signings with the likes of Orlando Jordan being the minority as most either were main eventers in their former promotions or had untapped potential) or the "TNA guys" not being main event material (AJ Styles, Pope, and Bobby Roode definitely are as is a motivated Samoa Joe, while James Storm could also make a good main eventer as well). There are two major reasons as to why TNA/Impact Wrestling's lack of fresh, homegrown main eventers and major growth as well.
Not using the WWE/WCW/ECW veterans properly- Having the likes of Kurt Angle, Sting, Rob Van Dam, Bully Ray, and Hulk Hogan around is definitely a good thing, as four out of the five are still capable of putting on a solid wrestling match in 2011, and the one who isn't capable is one of the biggest draws in pro wrestling history, which gives the younger talent someone to ask for advice in terms of cutting promos and how to connect with the crowd. However, Angle is the only one out of the five that is being used properly. While he's had his share of world title reigns in TNA, he's deserved them by being a top 5 performer throughout his five year run and doing whatever they've asked him to do. In those five years, he's put over Jay Lethal, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Mr. Anderson to name a few while consistently putting on great matches in the process. Meanwhile, RVD was rushed to the TNA title one month after he debuted, only to have a long title reign that featured some ho-hum performances and ended when TNA noticed that the amount of appearances on his contract were running low, which resulted in him losing the belt in an injury angle. Bully Ray has been a pleasant surprise in his single run this year, but he still isn't main event material, and winning a feud over AJ Styles in a LAST MAN STANDING match is a very bad booking decision on TNA's part. Sting lost the title to AJ Styles two years ago in what was supposed to be his retirement, but since then he's returned twice and has won the world title twice, despite being over 50 years old. And Hulk Hogan's been feuding with Sting throughout the summer, which has resulted in many fans predicting Hogan vs. Sting to take place at Bound For Glory, despite Hogan not being able to do the leg drop anymore, much less wrestle a match. I respect the veterans for what they've accomplished, but it's not good for 40-50 year olds to be the main focus of a wrestling promotion.
Lack of a hierarchy outside of the veterans- If you've watched TNA from 2007 until now, you'd notice this, and it's been even more apparent since the Hogan/Bischoff era began. The likes of Angle, Sting, and RVD have consistently been in the title picture since they arrived in TNA, yet whenever a younger wrestler gains momentum, they always get depushed for some reason. Here are some examples:
AJ Styles- Feuded with Joe and Daniels for the X Division title in classic matches, teams with Daniels and have an epic feud with LAX over the tag titles, then turns heel, becomes Christian's lackey, teams with Tomko, then turns into Prince AJ, marries Karen Angle ON ACCIDENT, then turns babyface and eventually winning the world title, then turns heel and acts like Ric Flair, loses the title to RVD on Impact one month after he debuted with NO BUILD, feuds with Tommy Dreamer, then turns babyface again to lead Fourtune against Immortal, only to lose to Matt Hardy, Tommy Dreamer (a week or so before he left the company), Gunner, and Bully Ray during this year alone.
Christopher Daniels- Feuded with Joe and AJ for the X Division title in classic matches, teams with AJ and have an epic feud with LAX over the tag titles, turns heel only to lose to Sting in six minutes on PPV, then reforms Triple X before getting "fired", returns and main events two consecutive PPVs against AJ Styles (and Samoa Joe for the first one), then jobs to Val Venis at the next PPV, gets SQUASHED by Kurt Angle, gets released, and has returned once again to be a part of Fourtune.
Samoa Joe- Debuts with a year and a half long undefeated streak, loses his streak to Kurt Angle by SUBMISSION, feuds with Angle for all the gold and loses in a swerve everyone saw coming, wins title, gets mntored by Kevin Nash, loses title to Sting, dons facepaint, PJs, and a MACHETE as the one man Nation Of Violence, takes out the Main Event Mafia only to hand Angle the title and join MEM, is mentored by Taz, feuds with AJ Styles for the world title and loses at the PPV only to lose to ORLANDO JORDAN and get kidnapped by ninjas at the next taping, reappears months later without any mention of the kidnapping to become a jobber and have a pointless feud with Pope.
Pope- Debuts as heel, then turns face and gains A LOT of momentum, wins 8 Card Stud tourney, loses title match, returns after injury to feud with Abyss, then turns heel to have a pointless feud with Joe and a feud with Devon.
Abyss- Monster heel who had excellent hardcore matches with the likes of Sabu and Rhino, wins title by disqualification, then starts talking, feuds with Judas Mesias in a ripoff of the Undertaker/Kane/Paul Bearer storyline, disappears, then becomes a mental patient, has a girlfriend, starts clapping his hands, then is given Hulk Hogan's WWE Hall Of Fame Ring and becomes "immortal" as a result while having Hogan's WCW theme as his ring music, then turns heel and brands people backstage.
Matt Morgan- Debuts as Cornette's assistant, then feuds with Abyss, then feuds with Kurt Angle, teams with Hernandez, then turns on him, then becomes Fourtune's muscle, then jobs to Brian Kendrick, then turns on Fourtune because he was against them giving Anderson a concussion, then feuds with Hernandez again, and feuds with Scott Steiner.
No consistency whatsoever. One thing I've noticed is that whenever these wrestlers reached their peak, they lost all of their momentum and then struggle to get it all back. That is six guys that they either failed to pull the trigger on or did pull the trigger on, only to do something unbelievably stupid to their characters afterwards. AJ's easily been used the best out of all of the ones I listed and thus would be the only one that would make a credible main eventer if all the veterans retired tomorrow. WWE faced a similar issue recently, and have stepped up their game by giving Christian a real title reign (not a 5 day title reign or a WWECW title reign), gave CM Punk the title and two clean wins over John Cena this year after not winning a single PPV match for an entire year, and are building Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, and Alberto Del Rio slowly rather than rushing them (a reason why Sheamus' two title reigns last year were not very strong). TNA needs to choose some guys to get behind, stick with them, and not get cold feet if the fans react strongly to them (or lose focus on them whenever a veteran from another promotion debuts). They've been pushing Crimson and Gunner very hard over the last few months with Crimson having an undefeated streak and Gunner being a former TV champion while having wins over Sting, Mr. Anderson, and AJ Styles already, though they've yet to catch on with the fans and have yet to have a standout match. At least TNA is showing signs of how to push young talent correctly lately, regardless if those two are the right choices or not, though there is still the chance that they'll screw it up like they often do.
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